Chapter 233: The Warriors with an Uneven Lineup
After defeating the Timberwolves, the Suns met the challenge of the Golden State Warriors at home, and Li Mojie was very excited before the game, because he knew that the Warriors dynasty started this season, and the arrival of Steve Kerr and the opening of Drummond allowed the Warriors to gather the last piece of the championship puzzle!
In the 1988 NBA Draft, Steve Kerr was selected by the Phoenix Suns with the 50th pick in the second round. As a player, he played for the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers. From 1995 to 1998, he completed three consecutive championships with the Bulls. He won the championship with the Spurs in 1999. In 2003, he won another championship with the Spurs and announced his retirement at the end of the season. Kerr's career three-point shooting percentage is as high as 45.4 percent, which ranks first in NBA history (with at least 250 three-point shots).
After retiring as a player, Kerr became a commentator for Turner Television Network (TNT) and left Turner Television Network in 2007 to become general manager of the Phoenix Suns. He announced his departure in 2010 and returned to his role as a commentator. Before becoming the head coach of the Golden State Warriors in 2014, he had the opportunity to become the head coach of the Knicks, because Phil Jackson was also Kerr's mentor, and after Jackson moved in to the Knicks in March this year, he had many in-depth exchanges with him, and only reached a deal with the New York team.
But the wise Kerr understood that the Knicks roster outside of the Golden Wool was full of problems, and did not jump into the big hole of the Knicks, but chose to become the helm of the Warriors for the next five years with a five-year $25 million contract, maybe just because the Knicks' last offer at that time was four years and $17.6 million?
Another thing that is of interest to Chinese fans is that on January 19, 2004, the current Warriors coach Steve Kerr was still a basketball commentator, and in 2004, Steve Kerr referred to Yao Ming as "", a racist term, in a game commentary. The next day, Cole sent out a letter of apology. Cole said his mistake was not intentional, but purely ignorant. He thought that "fren" could also be used to describe Chinese like "fren", but he did not understand that this word had a strong derogatory connotation, so he immediately called Yao Ming to apologize.
At a press conference, a reporter asked about the incident, Yao Ming smiled and said: "The matter has passed, Cole called me specifically, and his apology can be described as 'sincere fear'." He was clearly aware of his mistake, and he didn't mean it. At this time, I should show my generosity. He also said that Cole had apologized to himself for his unintentional words, and since it was an unintentional word, it could naturally be forgiven, otherwise, everyone would be very tired.
In fact, Steve Cole is different from Redick, he is still relatively unlikely, because Steve Cole's father, Malcolm Cole, is an American scholar on the Middle East and the Arab world, a professor of political science at UCLA University, and spent most of his life in Lebanon. He was shot dead on 18 January 1984 by suspected racists.
Back to this game, the Warriors' record before the game was 7 wins and ranked first in the West, and the Grizzlies lost to the Spurs in the following games, with the same record as the Suns, both 6-1, ranking second in the West.
Just as the Suns were bracing their spirits to face the Western Conference leader, there was good news from the Warriors, Klay Thompson missed the next week with a broken finger in his right hand while training. Klay Thompson's attendance has always been high, and he only missed four games this season before being met by the Suns.
So in this game, the Warriors sent starters: Curry, Livingston, Barnes, Green, Bogut, and only one Thompson away from the championship lineup.
On the Suns' side, Gordon also suspended the game because of a little knee discomfort, and sent a combination of CJ McCollum, Middleton, Lee Mojab, Marcus, and Gobert.
When jumping the ball, Gobert jumped early, and it was actually "White Duncan" Bogut who grabbed the rebound, what a White Duncan!
The first ball Warriors attack Curry, Thompson is not there and there is really no one else, this world in the 2013-2014 season Warriors and the Thunder in the first round of the seven games were eliminated, before the series did not start, fans thought that the Thunder would win the Warriors in 5 or 6 games, but I didn't expect the Warriors to be very resilient to play the tie-break and stick to the last moment. Then in the summer, Mark Jackson got out of class. The management was not satisfied with Mark's work, and the management found it unacceptable not to achieve better results than last season. Many fans were thinking at the time that the management of the Warriors was really whimsical, and the Warriors actually wanted to enter the Western Conference Finals but the Warriors were ranked sixth. In the summer, the head coach was replaced by Kerr, but most fans felt that the Warriors would be around four or five in the future, and that the playoffs hovered between the first and second rounds, and that was the Warriors' ceiling. And Curry has already got an All-Star starter and a second team in 14 years. At that time, everyone thought that Curry would not have a few times in his career, and felt that Curry would continue to hover in the second or third team several times in the future. At the very least, the championship and the MVP will definitely not associate the two with the Warriors and Curry.
Who would have thought that Curry would win two MVPs in a row in the future, would have the opportunity to lead the team to defend the title and build a dynasty team, and would break the record of 72 wins every year when someone asks if so-and-so team can break it.
At least McCollum, who had just been promoted to the starting lineup, didn't expect it, so Curry directly ignored him and shot directly two steps away from the three-point line.
"No, you're going to vote so far?" McLuum had just thought about it when he heard the Warriors' Draymond Green cheering.
He understood what was going on in an instant, and he didn't dare to look back at the bench on the sidelines, where he knew Hornacek would stare at him with dissatisfaction. Curry didn't care what McLuum was thinking, he glanced at him a little 13, and slowly returned to the defense. McLuum looked at Curry's rickety back and gritted his teeth fiercely.
Li Mojie was targeted by Barnes as soon as he passed the half, Li Mojie had no absolute advantage over Barnes in terms of speed, strength, and skill, and at the same time, Green on the inside was also eyeing him, but Li Mojie still wanted to give it a try, he hurriedly broke through Barnes and was really defended by Green, and Green made up for the ball very well to block the passing line before Marcus and Li Mojie, so Li Mojie could only shoot, and the result was iron.
"Green + Barnes, this is James's treatment!" Li Mojie bit his lip, although it was difficult, he still wanted to give it a try.
So then, the Warriors led the Suns at home in the first quarter, leading by four points at 28:24, and Li Mojie hit only 2 of 6 shots, plus free throws to score 6 points.
But in the second quarter, Li Mojie changed, "Chris, catch the ball" Middleton received a pass from Li Mojie at the top of the three-point arc, Middleton didn't think about it, and then Li Mojie's pass was directly outside the three-point line at the top of the arc. Very decisively.
The Warriors attacked, Middleton did not hesitate to wrap Stephen Curry with the new Seth Curry, Seth Curry doesn't care if this is his brother in front of him, as a marginal person on the team, can he have the opportunity to play and be merciful? His brother is an All-Star, and he played four minutes for the Grizzlies last season and was cut, then went to the Cavaliers and played nine minutes before being cut, and this season he finally signed a $100,000 contract with the Suns, what else does he want so much?
Then Curry was uncomfortable, his playing habits his brother knew, and then that Middleton had been packed, if Thompson was there, then it would be easy to do, he passed the ball to Thompson, and then everything was fine, but now Thompson is not there, he is next to Livingston, Livingston is a mid-range shooter, yes, but this person basically does not shoot three-pointers, so Curry hesitated to contribute a steal to his brother.
With the Warriors' offense in trouble, the Suns began to chase points, with Li Mojie and Marcus hitting a three-pointer and a mid-range shot respectively to take a one-point lead at 29:28.
So Steve Kerr hurriedly called a timeout, replaced Livingston, and replaced Iguodala, although Iguodala's three points are not very accurate, but if you let him vacant, he really dares to enter, and Kerr has no choice, the backup quarterback is only Barbosa, who was still with the Suns last season, this person's three-point is more accurate than Iguodala, but Barbossa only has 191 Middleton, then Middleton will shoot through the Warriors Nets! I want to talk about "The New Magician of Basketball" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~